cannabisnews.com: Home-Grow Kits Fuel Cannabis Boom
Home-Grow Kits Fuel Cannabis Boom
Posted by CN Staff on May 29, 2005 at 16:08:23 PT
By Tony Thompson, Crime Correspondent
Source: Observer UK
United Kingdom -- An explosion in the amount of cannabis grown in people's homes has alarmed senior police officers, with some forces reporting a sixfold increase in seizures. Home-grown cannabis now accounts for more than half of all consumption in the UK. While cultivating cannabis is illegal, it is not against the law to buy seeds and growing equipment and business is booming. 'There's no doubt that the market for home-grown has completely exploded,' says Mark Evans, director of internet-based retailer: http://www.everyonedoesit.com/
'We're selling at least 200 packets of seeds each week. Some of it is down to the reclassification - there's a lot of confusion out there, and some people think it's now legal. The other factor is the increased availability of hydroponic equipment which enables you to grow plants indoors.' Small-scale kits cost about £350, while a packet of 10 'mid-range' seeds is around £65. A typical user would expect to recoup this with the first crop. The number of outlets selling seeds and paraphernalia has gone from 50, five years ago, to more than 2,000. In the past month officers from the Metropolitan Police seized more than 10,000 cannabis plants. Figures to be released next month are expected to show that the total amount of herbal cannabis seized in the past year - which includes home-grown plants - has nearly doubled to 950,000 kilos. Forces around the country have noticed a similar trend. Police in Northern Ireland seized more than 1,200 cannabis plants in the past year compared with 202 the year before. In Scotland the Tayside force's seizure rate has gone up sixfold. The independent drug advice group Drugscope says the proportion of home-grown cannabis being consumed now accounts for half the total market. The dramatic increase comes as the government contemplates a U-turn on the reclassification of cannabis, which was scaled back from class B to class C last year. The Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs is debating whether cannabis containing high levels of the active ingredient THC should attract higher penalties. Domestic plants often have a significantly higher content. Regular users are sceptical of the review. 'The main reason people grow their own cannabis is that they want to know what they are smoking and because they want to avoid associating with criminals,' says Howard Green, who grows the drug for his own use, passing on the surplus to those who use it to alleviate the symptoms of MS and other conditions. 'It's not always about having the strongest product available. Sometimes you feel like a pint of beer and sometimes you want a glass of brandy. A change in the law will make no difference. If people want to take drugs, they don't care what class they are.' While much of the increase in seizures is due to the arrest of people growing a small number of plants for personal use, there has also been an explosion in the number of large criminal enterprises. 'We're not talking about a few hippies growing a bit of pot,' says Detective Inspector Dave McKelvey, who led raids on several London cannabis 'farms' this month. 'These are organised criminals prepared to invest money in cultivation on a commercial scale for big profits.' The raids uncovered 10 houses converted into cannabis factories, each containing up to 2,000 plants. Sophisticated lighting and watering systems meant a new crop could be produced every eight weeks. Gangs will invest up to £50,000 per property to establish a growing operation. Increased competition has also raised the spectre of gangland violence. In January the body of a Vietnamese national, Khang Tho Nguyen, was discovered in a house in Alperton, north London. The 41-year-old had been stabbed in the neck. The entire upstairs of the rented property where his body was found had been adapted to grow large numbers of cannabis plants. His killers remain at large. Police have vowed to continue the crackdown on growers, but in future those who are caught may face more lenient sentences. Last week the Court of Appeal halved the sentence of 33-year-old cannabis user Matthew Herridge from 12 months to six months. Herridge, who was caught with 52 plants, successfully argued that the entire crop was for his own personal use and that he was not a dealer. Source: Observer, The (UK)Author: Tony Thompson, Crime CorrespondentPublished: Sunday, May 29, 2005Copyright: 2005 The ObserverContact: letters observer.co.ukWebsite: http://www.observer.co.uk/Related Articles & Web Site: Advisory Council On The Misuse of Drugshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/reschedule.pdf Cannabis Arrests Fall By a Third http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread20173.shtmlBig Shake-Up of Britains Drug Laws in 30 Yearshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18261.shtmlThe Case for Small Home Growers http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18249.shtml
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Comment #17 posted by afterburner on May 30, 2005 at 20:36:07 PT
France Chance
Next scheduled vote on EU Constitution on Wednesday, by the Netherlands. The UK referendum seems to be off. Now, is the time to stand up for Cannabis Tolerance, which has been attacked by the EU.Donovan - Love Will Find A Way Lyrics
http://www.lyricsdownload.com/donovan-love-will-find-a-way-lyrics.html "You may train the eagle
To stoop down to your fist
Feed him cheese and bagels
And send him to the east"The dragon beast, he may move her
To give over her prey
But you'll never stop a lover
He will find a way"Russia may teach her children
To suppress and subdue
Philosophise their freedom
And keep from them what is true-ue-ue-ue-ue"Shake a hammer and your sickle
The individual to slay
But you'll never stop a lover
He will find a way"You both dream an empire
Of planets up on high
Searching for the God power
With stardust in your eye"The milky moon, he may wander
From golden night to silver day
But you'll never stop a lover
He will find a way"
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Comment #16 posted by b4daylight on May 30, 2005 at 15:47:30 PT
Grow Grow your boat
Way to go UK.Way to go France on the EU vote!
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Comment #15 posted by afterburner on May 30, 2005 at 11:02:59 PT
'Corporate personhood'&'that incident...
"Corporate personhood" & "that incident in the Boston harbor"--Is Wal-Mart a Person? Thom Hartmann Tells Why It Is--Kind of--But Not Really, January 28, 2005
http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/05/01/int05004.html
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Comment #14 posted by BGreen on May 30, 2005 at 10:40:09 PT
The proof that science is ignored
From the article potpal linked to:Lord Justice Mance, sitting with Mr Justice Newman and Mr Justice Fulford, said the general prohibition on cannabis in the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act showed that any benefits perceived or suggested for individual patients were regarded as outweighed by the disbenefits of allowing its use.In 1971 nobody had discovered the CB1, CB2 or the recently mentioned CB3 receptors, the endogenous CANNABINOID RECEPTORS that play a major role in most of the functions of the body, nor had anybody even HYPOTHESIZED the existence of these receptors. Now, the ONLY plant containing cannabinoids, Cannabis, is being outlawed based on antiquated prohibition laws, IGNORING 34 YEARS OF SCIENCE IN FAVOR OF JAIL AND DEATH!The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #13 posted by afterburner on May 30, 2005 at 10:39:58 PT
Pharm v. Farm
Guess who has the money?Are we neo-serfs?
Jane Stillwater: "Do You Agree That a Corporation is a Person?"
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Comment #12 posted by FoM on May 30, 2005 at 10:22:29 PT
potpal
It sadly could be. I swore I would never take another drug unless I was on my death bed and needed narcotics to bear the pain. I resent drugs big time.
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Comment #11 posted by potpal on May 30, 2005 at 09:40:34 PT
foreshadowing
Could this have been a trail balloon for are own Supreme's decision and strategy to keep the profits for the big pharm...?http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4586033.stm
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Comment #10 posted by goneposthole on May 30, 2005 at 08:06:47 PT
If pot were legal...
law enforcement would be off of everybody's back. Actually, the older law enforcement people that I am familiar with know what you do, just don't be dumb enough to get caught. They have accepted the fact that cannabis use is here to stay. They can't make it go away. It is just a matter of time for cannabis to be re-legalized. Time for those who follow the common everyday over-taxed, now becoming poorer everyday citizen to 'fess up and look reality square in the eye. Our 'leaders' must follow or they will get left behind. It's a no brainer. They obviously know how to follow, George Bush led them to a slaughterhouse, the Judas Goat.Want to know how bad it has become? Type in the words 'miserable failure' on a google search. Click 'I'm feeling lucky' and see what you get.Back to reality.If pot were legal...Amsterdam would still be a really groovy place, as I hear tell.People would finally feel free again.Have a nice Memorial Day. And for those 5,000 US soldiers who have deserted to Ireland, you aren't forgotten, either.In Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure-dome decree :Where Alph, the sacred river, ranThrough caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea.So twice five miles of fertile groundWith walls and towers were girdled round :And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;And here were forests ancient as the hills,Enfolding sunny spots of greenery. But oh ! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover !
A savage place ! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover !
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced :
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail :
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean :
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war !
The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves ;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice !
A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw :
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome ! those caves of ice !
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware ! Beware !
His flashing eyes, his floating hair !
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.That is... if pot were legal.It ain't, so you aren't free.
Kubla Khan
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Comment #9 posted by mayan on May 30, 2005 at 06:39:01 PT
BIG PROFITS
'We're not talking about a few hippies growing a bit of pot,' says Detective Inspector Dave McKelvey, who led raids on several London cannabis 'farms' this month. 'These are organised criminals prepared to invest money in cultivation on a commercial scale for big profits.'Why are there such huge profits to be made? Kap'n mentioned the solution. It's so damned obvious.
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Comment #8 posted by kaptinemo on May 30, 2005 at 06:31:13 PT:
The obvious bites them where they sit
and they still slap their faces instead of looking around behind them.*The independent drug advice group Drugscope says the proportion of home-grown cannabis being consumed now accounts for half the total market.*In other words, the 'trade deficit' with regards to illicit cannabis has now been reduced. Britons, Scots and the Welsh are now producing their own, high quality product. Less of their money is leaving the country. Not only that, but the growers are far more quality conscious than someone who would dilute and adulterate the product before it reaches the end user. So, SAFER cannabis is now being circulated throughout the islands of the UK.And the police and politicians want to stop this? They want to INCREASE the harms associated with use? They want more of their money to flee the economy? They want criminal conspiracies to control the market?It's only a matter of time before the UK's public realizes that A) The sky hasn't fallen after the reclassification; B) The strength of criminal gangs is in direct proportion to the level of sanctions against cannabis and other illicits;C) Given A and B, there's no sense in trying to eliminate the trade using the old methods that haven't worked at all. Therefore, time to take the last step and do away with sanctions altogether...and relegalize.
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Comment #7 posted by John Tyler on May 30, 2005 at 06:13:24 PT
Time has come
When cannabis use has grown to this extent (no pun intended) it is time for political leaders to declare a victory and legalize and regulate the market and treat it like alcoholic beverages. You can’t lock up half of the country and give them a criminal record. It is time for the “nay sayers” to step aside. Sometimes you feel like having a beer, sometimes you feel like having a brandy, sometimes you feel like having a joint, sometimes you feel like having some hash. Time has come today.
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Comment #6 posted by potpal on May 30, 2005 at 06:07:52 PT
medpot news
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4586033.stm
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Comment #5 posted by Dan B on May 30, 2005 at 04:39:36 PT
Well, We Can't Have That!
You're too funny, Hope. I love your sarcasm.So, young Khang Tho Nguyen is killed for his fantastic grow, becoming a statistic in the "explosion in large criminal enterprises" for which "increased competition has also raised the spectre of gangland violence,"
and all the police can say is that they will "continue the crackdown on growers, but in future those who are caught may face more lenient sentences"? Hello? Did anyone hear Howard Green, who said that "the main reason people grow their own cannabis is that they want to know what they are smoking and because they want to avoid associating with criminals"? Could it be that the laws against growing are the problem? If it were legal to grow one's own, criminals would have no use for individual grows, and decent guys like Howard Green wouldn't have to worry about ending up like Khang Tho Nguyen. But then, I suppose that may be the point of publishing this article--to show the stupidity of the anti-grow laws.Dan B
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Comment #4 posted by potpal on May 30, 2005 at 04:31:16 PT
Police this
Cops just can't give up on the easy money. I'd like to see the list of confiscated property that goes along wit these siezures someday.Everybody grows pot, everybody grows pot, everybody grows pot...nice twist to it!Okay so now they need laws that allow them to walk right in, sit right down...oh...they have them already. They sniff the air, here in a resort town, I've read where they monitored the air coming out of air conditioners to give them the go to walk right in. Even if they monitor the heat eminating from your home from attic gardens, this method cannot detect a phototron which uses flourescent light and only the wattage of a color tv...We may just grow our way out of prohibition.Police, chase some real criminals, will ya, chill, write some tickets for seat belts, click it or ticket, save some lives, not, safe reason to pull over some cannabis user for a quick search...Grow.
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Comment #3 posted by Hope on May 29, 2005 at 20:28:40 PT
What you say is true, Guys...
But you know..."a black man whose smoked marihuana might dare to look you in the eye"...or heaven forbid, "Step on your shadow"!
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Comment #2 posted by jose melendez on May 29, 2005 at 20:12:18 PT
patient tested, doctor approved . . .
'It's not always about having the strongest product available. Sometimes you feel like a pint of beer and sometimes you want a glass of brandy. - - -http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20050516/lead/lead3.html "When you arrive at a function, the first thing you are offered is a glass of alcohol. Alcohol produces more damage than ganja has ever produced. There is a direct relationship between alcohol and absenteeism, death and disability from motor vehicle accidents, family violence ... there is no such direct relationship between ganja and anything but the U.S. has said that it is a narcotic," said Dr. Lockhart. He should know. As part of the now famous and highly-acclaimed West and Lockhart team (as in Dr. Manley West, professor emeritus in pharmacology), Dr. Lockhart, researcher and consultant ophthalmologist, pioneered research on ganja as medicine in the '70s and '80s. They developed two anti-glaucoma drugs from ganja Canasol and Cantimol topical eye medicines that lower intraocular pressure and changed the thinking in medicine about glaucoma. (Raised intraocular pressure is linked to optic nerve damage and partial blindness in glaucoma). "We are not encouraging smoking. Smoking anything: ganja, tobacco or bush, is related to cancer but we are saying that there are active ingredients in ganja for medicine," he said.
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Comment #1 posted by runderwo on May 29, 2005 at 18:17:09 PT
overgrow the government
"Sometimes you feel like a pint of beer and sometimes you want a glass of brandy."No other statement could more succinctly sum up why the "higher potency" boogeyman is a fraudulent argument.
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